Crypto Prices Move More in Sync With Stocks, Posing New Risks
There’s a growing interconnectedness between virtual assets and financial markets.
Emerging-Market Central Bank Asset Purchases Can Be Effective but Carry Risks
Asset purchases can be an effective tool, but it is critical to minimize risks to central bank independence and price stability.
Chart of the WeekGlobal Financial Safety Net—A Lifeline for an Uncertain World
When crises hit, such as a global health pandemic, countries have a number of financial resources—both internal and external—to draw on.
Chart of the WeekHow Stock Markets Respond to Social Unrest
Philip Barrett and Sophia Chen
What happens to stock markets when social unrest—such as mass protests and riots—occurs? Are investors scared-off by the disorder? Or are they buoyed by the prospect of positive, popular change in response to unrest? […]
Time is Ripe for Innovation in the World of Sovereign Debt Restructuring
By Peter Breuer and Charles Cohen
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When corporations have too much debt and need to restructure it, creditors often end up exchanging bonds or loans for stocks. They trade the guaranteed payout of a fixed-income investment for an equity position whose return depends on the company’s future results. […]
Emerging and Frontier Markets: Policy Tools in Times of Financial Stress
By Dimitris Drakopoulos, Rohit Goel, Fabio Natalucci, and Evan Papageorgiou
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After the unprecedented hit to economic activity in emerging market economies from the COVID-19 pandemic, their economic output is projected to shrink by 3.3 percent in 2020. […]
Economic Policy in Latin America and the Caribbean in the Time of COVID-19
As of today, about 3,000 people have died from the COVID-19 virus in Latin America and the Caribbean. While the pandemic continues to spread across the region, countries are facing the worst economic recession since countries started producing national accounts statistics in the 1950s. […]
Europe’s COVID-19 Crisis and the Fund’s Response
This blog is part of a series providing regional analysis on the effects of the coronavirus.
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COVID-19 has struck Europe with stunning ferocity. While we do not know how long the crisis will last, we know that the economic impact will be severe. In Europe’s major economies, nonessential services closed by government decree account for about one-third of output. […]
Potential Impact of the Coronavirus Epidemic: What We Know and What We Can Do
This blog is the first of a special series on the response to the coronavirus
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We all recognize that the situation with the spread of the coronavirus is very serious and could well get worse. This affects us all. Let me start with what we know and what we don’t yet know about the coronavirus and then how the global community can support those affected by this crisis in an effective and coordinated way. […]
A Call for Vigilance After a Strong Year for Risky Assets
By Tobias Adrian and Fabio Natalucci
While we have seen some recent volatility, many risky asset markets around the world had a spectacular year in 2019. Equity market indices were up just over 30 percent in the United States, close to 25 percent in Europe and China, and over 15 percent in emerging markets and Japan. Emerging-market sovereign debt, U.S. high-yield debt, and emerging-market corporate debt all had returns in excess of 12 percent. Remarkably, the fourth quarter of 2019 was especially strong in China and in emerging markets.